Melanocortin 4 receptor mutations contribute to the adaptation of cavefish to nutrient-poor conditions.

Despite recent advances in the understanding of morphological evolution, the genetic underpinnings of behavioral and physiological evolution remain largely unknown. Here, we study the metabolic changes that evolved in independently derived populations of the Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus. A hallmark of cave environments is scarcity of food.

Distinct genetic architecture underlies the emergence of sleep loss and prey-seeking behavior in the Mexican cavefish.

Background: Sleep is characterized by extended periods of quiescence and reduced responsiveness to sensory stimuli. Animals ranging from insects to mammals adapt to environments with limited food by suppressing sleep and enhancing their response to food cues, yet little is known about the genetic and evolutionary relationship between these processes. The blind Mexican cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus is a powerful model for elucidating the genetic mechanisms underlying behavioral evolution.

Cryptic variation in morphological evolution: HSP90 as a capacitor for loss of eyes in cavefish.

In the process of morphological evolution, the extent to which cryptic, preexisting variation provides a substrate for natural selection has been controversial. We provide evidence that heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) phenotypically masks standing eye-size variation in surface populations of the cavefish Astyanax mexicanus. This variation is exposed by HSP90 inhibition and can be selected for, ultimately yielding a reduced-eye phenotype even in the presence of full HSP90 activity.

The population genomics of repeated evolution in the blind cavefish Astyanax mexicanus.

Distinct populations of Astyanax mexicanus cavefish offer striking examples of repeatable convergence or parallelism in their independent evolutions from surface to cave phenotypes. However, the extent to which the repeatability of evolution occurred at the genetic level remains poorly understood. To address this, we first characterized the genetic diversity of 518 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), obtained through RAD tag sequencing and distributed throughout the genome, in seven cave and three groups of surface populations.

β-adrenergic signaling regulates evolutionarily derived sleep loss in the Mexican cavefish.

Sleep is a fundamental behavior exhibited almost universally throughout the animal kingdom. The required amount and circadian timing of sleep differs greatly between species in accordance with habitats and evolutionary history. The Mexican blind cavefish, Astyanax mexicanus, is a model organism for the study of adaptive morphological and behavioral traits.

Altered rest-activity patterns evolve via circadian independent mechanisms in cave adapted balitorid loaches.

Circadian rhythms and rest homeostasis are independent processes, each regulating important components of rest-activity patterns. Evolutionarily, the two are distinct from one another; total rest time is maintained unaffected even when circadian pacemaker cells are ablated. Throughout the animal kingdom, there exists a huge variation in rest-activity patterns, yet it is unclear how these behaviors have evolved.

Gene flow and population structure in the Mexican blind cavefish complex (Astyanax mexicanus).

Background: Cave animals converge evolutionarily on a suite of troglomorphic traits, the best known of which are eyelessness and depigmentation. We studied 11 cave and 10 surface populations of Astyanax mexicanus in order to better understand the evolutionary origins of the cave forms, the basic genetic structuring of both cave and surface populations, and the degree to which present day migration among them affects their genetic divergence.

Results: To assess the genetic structure within populations and the relationships among them we genotyped individuals at 26 microsatellite loci.

Evolutionary convergence on sleep loss in cavefish populations.

Patterns of sleep vary widely among species, but the functional and evolutionary principles responsible for this diversity remain unknown. The characin fish, Astyanax mexicanus, has eyed surface and numerous blind cave populations. The cave populations are largely independent in their origins, and the species is ideal for studying the genetic bases of convergent evolution.